It was already late at night after dinner. Malashenko was discussing the combat situation with Lavrinenko, while Commissar Petrov had other things to do.
"Today's battle went very smoothly. We destroyed the key point at the junction between the German 26th Army and the 41st Armored Army, and swallowed alive a main armored division of the 41st Armored Army, plus some auxiliary personnel transferred from the 26th Army.
troops."
"The preliminary interrogation report combines the intelligence we have and the latest aerial reconnaissance. After we complete today's battle, there are no organized German groups from our current position to the direction of Insterburg."
"Except for the German 26th Army on the northern front, which is strategically parallel to ours, and the 41st Armored Army on the southern front, we have now become a salient and have cut off the direct land connection between these two groups of fascists. Unless
They retreated and re-established their defenses, otherwise they would not be able to cross us to establish land contact."
This strategic counterattack by the Germans is quite desperate. Almost all the mobile forces that can be mobilized are put on the front line, trying to gather the most powerful offensive energy in a local direction, achieve some decisive results, and then reverse the situation.
situation.
But the consequences of doing so are naturally very tragic, and there must be a price for over-concentration of troops.
Once the forward cluster of German troops on the front line is defeated, the battle zone is penetrated, the rear defense is empty, and a large area of territory without troops is concealed and weak, it will be immediately exposed.
If you think about it carefully, you will realize that this is actually a matter of course. When the total number of your troops is fixed, it would be strange to hoard such a large force for the strategic attack on the front line for a decisive battle if the rear defense is not empty. The whole thing is
Although the besieged East Prussian cluster has a lot of troops, it is far from being able to fully fill the rear and front lines with troops at the same time.
"Well, the fight was indeed very good, and even the preset tactical goal was completed beyond the deadline. Killing a German's main armored division in one day with consecutive kills, plus some miscellaneous people, nearly 20,000 people, and it was enough to kill those Fache
The bastard was so frightened that he called his mother."
Having said that, Malashenko is indeed very satisfied.
The fully mechanized combined force of various arms bursts out with powerful combat energy. In addition, the Germans are still using old-fashioned troop structures and tactics to deal with the new leader divisions, whose strength has skyrocketed. It is not surprising that such a result can be achieved.
.
This also allowed Malashenko, who had the intention of "testing the actual combat power limit of the troops" in this battle, to basically find out what the current maximum single-day combat capability of the leadership division is.
It only took one day to head-on defeat a reinforced main armored division of the Wehrmacht. This was already the limit of the leader division's full strength, and it could only be achieved if the 267th Infantry Division also added in the important infantry support.
If there were more Germans participating in the war, for example, one or two more regiments, it would be very difficult for Malashenko to kill them in one day.
Unless the enemy has no strong will to fight and surrenders voluntarily when seeing no hope of victory, otherwise if the Germans really intend to fight to the death, they will have to stop fighting all night and then continue fighting at dawn the next day, so as not to be dazzled by the night battle and allow the enemy to take advantage of the loopholes.
Slip away.
As for the current extreme combat effectiveness that has been tested so far, if Malashenko feels that it is not strong enough and is not satisfied, then it is indeed a bit too Versailles.
To be fair, a Red Army tank division plus an infantry division could defeat a strengthened main armored division of the Wehrmacht in one day, completely wiping out the enemy's organization, and either killing them directly or capturing them alive and surrendering.
For most Red Army division commanders, they would not dare to even think about it, let alone do it. However, Malashenko and the leading division not only dared to think about it, but also dared to do it, and they actually could do it.
Thinking of this, Malashenko, who still had a smile on his face, looked at the map in front of him and continued to speak.
"Now it depends on how to fight next. The protrusion has been formed and the fire has burned the Germans' butts. It is the fascists who are anxious and uncomfortable, not us."
"I don't think that the two military-level Germans in the north and south have the ability to withstand the Red Army's strategic offensive head-on, and then divide their forces to attack from the north and the south to remove our salient. Although our advance distance is not deep, today it is only
Annihilating all the enemies in front of you is equivalent to taking over their defense areas and positions, and the actual distance to advance is only about eight kilometers."
"But the eight kilometers of forward protrusion is enough to make the Germans feel very uncomfortable. The Germans in the north are always worried about being suddenly stabbed in the soles, and the Germans in the south are worried about being hit in the head. If the Red Army invests more troops in the salient to expand
Following the results of the battle, we can use this as a starting point for the attack to continue to detour behind the two corps-level Kraut units. The available tactical options are quite diverse, and the tactical initiative is in our hands, provided that these Krauts do not give up their existing
In terms of positions and defense zones.”
"If they are willing to retreat, that's another matter. But from a side perspective, this is also another important victory: it means that it took only one day to disintegrate the enemy's offensive in the current direction, forcing them to retreat. So.
In any case, today's battle was fought very well both tactically and strategically, and I guess Comrade Commander must be very happy now."
Vatutin's order to Malashenko was only to attempt a local counterattack. It did not require how many enemies to be annihilated or what kind of results must be achieved, but at least it must disrupt the enemy's attack and deployment rhythm and force the Germans to lose their tactical initiative.
Then they were led by the nose by the Red Army, and even further, they were making advance preparations for the strategic attack that was actually planned for tomorrow.
However, Malashenko, who has always had great freedom of expression, achieved such an unexpected result according to the more difficult tactical goals he set on the premise of following Vatutin's orders.
This can no longer be regarded as simply preparing for tomorrow's strategic offensive, but opening up a new optional high-quality breakthrough for tomorrow's strategic offensive, one that can continue to expand the results, and then give the two military-level units of the northern and southern Germans.
Surrounded attacking springboard.
Malashenko, who has not yet received an updated combat order, does not yet know what Vatutin will do specifically.
But you have to let Comrade Lao Ma speak for himself. He definitely wants to use the current salient as a springboard to encircle and encircle the two Kraut military-level units in the north and south. After all, this encirclement will cut through the Krauts' back row.
It's a beautiful thing.
This requires Vatutin to send more troops into the salient to expand the subsequent results. The leader's division alone cannot pull out such a large encirclement. After the leader's division leaves, the unguarded salient will become completely useless.